The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-23

cord If society and the world are painfully
diScordant to imperfect man, what must tney
be to perfect God: People try to deflne
what sin is 1t seems to me that sin is get
ting out of harmony with God, disagree
ment with His holiness, with His purity, with
His love, with His commands; our will clash
ing with His will, the finite dashing against
the infinite, the frail against the pulSSant the
created against the Creator If thousand
musicians, with flute, and corneta-plSton,
and trumpet, and violoncelo and hautboys,
and trombone and all the wind and stringed
instruments that ever gathered i'll Dussel-
dorf Jubilee. should resolve that they would
play out of tune and put concord to the rack.
and make the place wild with shrieking, anu
grating, and rasping sounds, they could not
make such a panGemonlum as that which
RACES in a sinful soul when God listens to the
play of its thoughts, passions and emotlons-
diScord, lifelong discord, maddening d;scort:;
The world pays more for discord than it
does for couSonance High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave SD to hear
the Swedish songstreSS in New York. and an
other Sti35 to hear her in Boston, and another
$3.50 to hear her in Providence. Fabulous
prices have been paid for sweet sounds, but
far more has been paid for dscord. The
Crmean war cost 81, ,IGO ,0OO,OOO. ana our
American cival war over S9,50O, ,OOO,OJO, and
the war debts of professed Christian nations
are about SIS, ,0O0, 90, 900, The world pays
for this red ticket, which admits it to the
saturnalia of broken bones, and death ago.
nies, and destroyed cities, and plowed graves,
and crushed hearts, any amount OF money
Satan asks. Discord! DiScord!
But I have to tell you that the song
that the morning stars sang. together
at the laying Of the worlds corner
Stone is to be resumed again. Mozart's
greatest overture was composed one night
when he was several times overpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell the places
in the music where he was falling asleep and
the places where he awakened. SO the over
ture of the morning stars spoken OF IN my
text has been asleep but it will awaken and
be more grandly rendered by the evening
stars of the worlds existence than by the
morning stars, and the veSpers will be
sweeter than the mathis The work of all
good men and women and of all good
churches ard all reform associations IS to
bring the race back to the original harmony.
The rebellious heart to be attuned, social life
to be attuned, commercial ethics to be at.
tuned internationally to be attuned, hemis-
pheres to be attuned-but by what force
and in what way?
In olden time the choristers had a tuning
fork with two prongs, and they would strike
it ON the back Of pew or music rack and put
it to the ear and then start the tune, and all
chestra the leader has complete instCIment,
rightly attuned, and he sounds that and all
the other performers turn the keys of their
instruments to make them correspond, and
sound the bow over the string, and listen,
and sound out over again, until all the keys
are screwed to concert pitch, and the dis
cords melt into one great symphony, and the
curtain hoists and the baton taps. and audi
enceS are raptured with SchumannS Para
disc and the PERI or RoSSinis 'Stabat Mater"
or Bach's "Magnifcat" in D, or Gounods
"Redemption.n
Now, our world can never be attuned by
an imperfect instrument. Even Cremona
would not do Heaven has ordained the only
instrument, and it is made out of the wood OF
the cross, and the voices that accompany it
are imported voices cantatrices of the first
Christmas night, when heaven serenaded the
earth with "Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace good will to men," Lest we
start too far off and get lost in generalities,
we had better begin with ourselves. get our
own hearts and life in harmony with the
eternal Christ. Oh, for His almighty spirit
to attune US, to chord our will with his will,
to modulate our life with his life, and bring
us into unison with all that is pure and self
sacrificing and heavenly. The strings Of our
bow is so slack it cannot evoke anything mel
lifluous The instrument made for heaven to
play on has been roughly twanged and struck
by influences worldly and demoniac. o,
master hand of Christ, restore this split and
fractured and despoiled and unstrung nature
until it shall wall out for this sin, and then
thrill with divine pardon.
The whole world must also be attuned by
the same power. A few days ago was in
the Fairbanks weighing scale mandatory
of Vermont. Six hundred hands, and they
have never had strike. Complete harmony
between labor and capital, the operatives OF
scores of years in their beautiful homes near
by the mansions of the manufacturers, whose
invention and Christian behavior made the
great enterprise So all the world over labor
and capital will be brought into euphony'
You may have heard what is called the can
vii Chorus" composed by Verdi, tune
played by hammers, great and small, now
with mighty stroke, and now with heavy
stroke, beating great iron anvil. That is
what the world has got to come to--anvil
chorus, yard stick chorus, shuttle chorus.
trowel chorus, crowbar chorus, pickax
chorus. gold mine chorus, rail track chorus,
locomotive chorus. 1t can be done, and it
will be done. So all social life will be at
tuned by the Gospel harp. There will
be as many classes in society as
now, but the classes will not he rcgu-
lated by birth, or wealth, or accident,
but by the scale Of virtue and benevolence,
anu peOple VIII ue as>'Sicu " lueiI liaC5o
as good, or very good or most ex-
cellent So also, commercial life will he
attuned, and there vii! he twelve in every
dozen and sixteen ounces i'll every pound,
and apples at the bottom of the barrel will he
as sound as those on top, and silk goods will
not be cotton, and sellers will not have to
charge honest people more than the right
price because Others will not pay, and goods
will come to you corresponding with the
|
coffee will not be chckoried and sugar will
not be Sanded, and milk will not lie chalked
and adulteration of food will be a States
prison offense. Aye, all things shall be at
tuned, Elections in England and the United
States will no more be grand carnival OF
defamation and scurrility, but the elevation
of righteous men in righteous way.
In the Sixteenth century the singers, called
the Fischer brothers, reached the lowest bass
ever recorded, and the highest note ever
thrilled was by La RaStardella, and Catalini's
voice had a compass of three and half octaves,
but Christianity is more wonderful, for it runs
all up and down the greatest heights and the
deepest depths of the worlds necessity, and
it will compass everything and bring it in ac-
! cord with the song which the morning stars
sang at the laying of the world cornerstone
All the sacred music in homes and concert
halls and churches tends toward this consum-
nation Make it more and more hearty.
Sing in your families. Sing in your places
Of business. If we with proper spirit use
these faculties, we are rehearsing for the
| skies.
Heaven is to have a new song, an entirely
new song, but should not wonder if, as
| sometimes On earth tune is fashioned out Of
many tunes, or it is one tune with the vara-
ations, so some Of the songs of the redeemed
may have playing through them the songs Of
earth, and how thrilling as coming through